TEN years from now Middlewich will have a completed bypass, a sixth-form college and a regenerated shopping area.

That's if a wish-list dreamed up by the town's residents comes true.

It was compiled at the launch of the Middlewich Vision Healthcheck, which aims to examine the town's existing facilities and asks what residents want for the future.

Middlewich Civic Hall played host to the launch event on Saturday, which marked the start of a wide-ranging consultation exercise which will be completed by the end of August, when an action plan aimed at securing funding for everything on the wish-list will be drawn up.

Residents met Healthcheck co-ordinator Stephen Dent and assistant Caroline O'Brien at the launch, which included a family fun day.

Mr Dent was full of praise for the support residents gave to the event.

'It was smashing,' he said. 'I'm very pleased with the community and we had a constant stream of residents talking to us and filling in the questionnaires.

'The main thing that came out of talking to people and looking through their responses was the desire to see the bypass completed - virtually everybody mentioned it.

'Regeneration of Wheelock Street was also considered important, along with the general improvement of the shopping facilities.

'People were given leaflets about the planned sports complex and the swimming pool. There was also mention of a sixth form as Middlewich is getting bigger but the children still have to travel out of the area when they reach 16.'

Other ideas mooted on the day included the development of a farmers market, and Mr Dent said he has been approached by the National Farmers Union to help Middlewich farmers do just that.

He said: 'NFU representatives will now go back and talk to the farmers and then we shall see if we can get something up and running.' He said he had also been talking to Town and Country Markets, which won a bid to run Middlewich Market.

'One suggestion is to close High Town on market day so we can re-generate the market,' he said. 'We could probably get about 20 stalls in there, but it's all subject to conditions.'

Support was shown for the redevelopment of the Bull Ring into a 'Roman amphitheatre-style' street entertainment venue which would act as a gateway to the town.

Mr Dent added: 'I think people enjoyed the day, there was certainly a lot of interest. We will be looking at these issues over the next couple of months. It was all very encouraging.'

The next stage is for organisers to analyse the findings. They say they will publicise an early summary of the results at the Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival in June.

Questionnaires about all aspects of Middlewich life are still being accepted. They can be collected from Middlewich Library, as well as the Healthcheck office in the Victoria Buildings, Lewin Street. The next meeting of the Middlewich Vision Partnership, is at the Wych Centre on Tuesday from 5-6pm. Everyone is welcome to attend to see what is going on.